Helping Christians Grow Stronger in Christ

How’s Your Church Attendance?

A few years ago the Barna Group conducted a survey showsthat eight out of 10 people in America say they are Christian. You can probably quickly survey your surroundings and see that those numbers cannot be true. Two studies on church attendance performed by C. Kirk Hadaway and P.L. Marler attempted to address a mathematical conundrum: year after year, 40 percent of Americans tell Gallup pollsters they attended church or synagogue in the past week; yet church membership has remained flat while the population has grown. Hadaway and Marler decided to take a closer look to see if church members were misreporting the numbers. They, along with researcher Mark Chaves, examined attendance at Protestant churches in one Ohio county and in 18 Roman Catholic dioceses across the country. Instead of 40 percent of Protestants attending church each week, they found 20 percent, and instead of the 50 percent of Catholics who say they attend church, they found 28 percent actually showed up.

This information is dated but it provides a glimpse behind the veil. It should allow you to realize the enormity of the challenge of sharing and teaching Christ. In title many may be Christians, but in living, not so much. I say this tongue and cheek, but it seems as though flash mobs are popping up nearly everywhere—we need to have a flash mob at church!

My question to you is simple, how’s your church attendance? If it isn’t good…come give us a visit this Sunday. We need you…we want you and we love you.